Some fairly important items coming up today for the Texas Department of Transportation, including the future of Tower 55. It is covered by the Dallas Morning News Transportation blog.

Wednesday afternoon, the Texas highway chiefs will gather to give him some input. You can watch over the web, by going here. The discussion — at a workshop in advance of Thursday’s formal Texas Transportation Commission meeting — is broadcast live beginning at 1:30 p.m. (A full agenda is here.)

Meanwhile, let’s start our own chat in the comments about what kind of rail plan the state should aim for? Should we be reaching for high-speed rail? Or focusing on improving the Amtrakservice we have? Or should our efforts be focused on freight improvements, instead?

In other business, the commissioners’ views will be sought on the state’s application for TIGER II grant money. You might recall that we quoted Bill Meadows and just about everyone else from the west, as saying that the state was going to put its muscle behind an application for Tower 55 freight rail improvements in Fort Worth.

Sure enough, the request is on the list TxDOT staff is sharing with the commissioners. But so are six other projects from other parts of the state. (Initially there 10 projects, but three have fallen off the list, and others may too, staff says in a report to the commissioners.)